Randy Waldrum, Super Falcons head coach, has disclosed that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) owed him 14 months salary until three weeks ago when he was paid for seven months.
The American who spoke in a recent chat with ‘On The Whistle’ podcast, also disclosed that some players are owed “per diem and bonuses” from two years ago.
“Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed 14 months’ salary, and then they paid seven months salary,” he said.
“Before that, a year and a half to two years, I had been owed for months before I was paid a little bit of it. Starting July, I’ll be eight months behind in salary.
“We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago when we played the summer series in the USA. It’s a travesty.”
Waldrum also claimed that FIFA had disbursed $960,000 to all the teams that qualified for the 2023 Women’s World Cup to prepare for the tournament.
The coach demanded accountability from the NFF regarding the money that was meant to fund the Falcons’ preparation for the World Cup.
“I have a close contact in the US that is very connected to some of the boards at FIFA, and this person told me that in October, every country was given $960,000 from FIFA to prepare for the World Cup. Where’s the money?” he said.
“If we had that money, why did we not build a camp in November?
“FIFA allows your staff to have up to 22 people, but we have only 11. We don’t have scouts to watch the teams in our group or potential opponents.
“In the two-and-a-half years that I’ve been here, I have never had one time that the federation came to me and asked, “What do you need, coach?”
“What keeps me going is the players. Otherwise, I would have walked away from this job a long time ago.”
The development is the latest in the exchange of words between Waldrum and the NFF over the past week.
According to TheCable, on June 29, the Falcons’ head coach condemned the NFF over its “lack of support” for the team ahead of the World Cup.
He said the team is “not prepared the way we need to be” for the tournament.
Responding, Ademola Olajire, NFF communications director, said Waldrum was “shooting his mouth off” instead of “admitting to the glaring deficiencies” he displayed in the list of players invited to participate in the tournament.
The women’s World Cup will be hosted by New Zealand and Australia from July 20.
The Falcons are scheduled to play Canada in their first match on July 21 before facing Australia six days later. The team will play Ireland in their last group game on July 31.
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